Ilustrarte is an international, biennial contest and exhibition for contemporary children’s book illustration held in Lisbon. For the 6th edition architects Pedro Cabrito and Isabel Diniz designed an exhibition space inspired by colourful toy blocks.

“For this Ilustrarte 14, we have crossed illustration for children with the playful and creative dimension of the act of playing, in a solution that explores the formal features of the famous colorful toy blocks, timeless in its simplicity and potential for discovery.” says Cabrito and Diniz.

“Starting from this basic vocabulary of prismatic elements, we decided to associate a new material – high density foam – with an appealing sensory quality, inducing a tactile experience and a playful interaction, in brief, stimulating imagination and participation.”

“It is noteworthy that the first concept model has been literally assembled using a set of blocks bought at a toy store.”

In all, 150 illustrations were shown in sets of foam blocks grouped, combined and recombined using a purely recreational logic, “extending the graphic game of the illustrations to a volumetric game that transforms space and defies our desire to play.”